PO 111: INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN POLITICS

1. PO 111: INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN POLITICS Summer I (2014) Claire Leavitt Boston University

2. TABLE OF CONTENTS • Racial/Gender Hierarchies v. Liberalism • The Battles over Affirmative Action • Race and Modern Political Life • The Southern Realignment • Coded Discourse and Stereotypes • Gender and Modern Political Life • The Battle over the ERA • The “Gender Gap”

3. CRACKS IN THE LIBERAL TRADITION • Racism is not just individual prejudice but structural disadvantages built into the political system • Outcomes can be justified through principles: How does the majority justify the unequal power structures that favor their interests? • Appeals to “science” and “nature”to reconcile liberalism with racial/gender hierarchies • Dismissals of racism/sexism as aberrations over which liberalism will triumph

4. CRACKS IN THE LIBERAL TRADITION • Justification of social inequalities: • Nature, science, a force beyond human control • Prejudice, a force well within individual control • Both justifications allow liberalism to remain intact • Power structures are omnipresent but difficult to see/define • Visible to the minority and invisible to the majority

5. CRACKS IN THE LIBERAL TRADITION • The amorphous nature of power structures today makes it difficult to assess when the playing field has been leveled • Decisions made on a case-by-case basis • Current norms place burden of proof on the majority to prove a law is fair; not on minority to prove a law isn’t fair • Affirmative action: Temporary solution or permanent part of admissions processes?

6. RACE AND MODERN POLITICAL LIFE • Civil Rights Act (1964) • Changed the nature of Senate debate • Voting Rights Act (1965) • Achieved its enfranchisement goals immediately • Black voters entered Democratic Party in the South • Southern Democrats stayed Democrats; new Southern voters went Republican • One of the causes of current party polarization

7. RACE AND MODERN POLITICAL LIFE • Direct versus Indirect Racial Discourse • Norms changed from mass acceptance of inequality to mass acceptance of equality • Racist appeals must be coded and implicit to be effective (Willie Horton) • Explicit racial appeals fail because of current norms

8. RACE AND MODERN POLITICAL LIFE • Coates: Black politicians get ahead by ignoring race, by embracing liberalism without the contradictions • Driven by awareness of below-the-surface racism • Ford: Black politicians may get ahead by embracing race, by pointing out the contradictions in liberalism • Driven by awareness of current norms that reject racism in favor of equality

9. GENDER AND MODERN POLITICAL LIFE • Text of the Equal Rights Amendment: • Section 1. Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. • Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article. • Section 3. This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification.

10. GENDER AND MODERN POLITICAL LIFE • ERA a largely symbolic amendment in light of the three pillars of the feminist movement • Why did women lose the ERA? • Abstract principle vs. practical outcomes • ERA linked to abortion and “activist courts” • Organizational differences between pro-ERA and anti-ERA groups

11. GENDER AND MODERN POLITICAL LIFE • What is the gender gap? • Why do more women vote for Democrats than for Republicans? • Most of the gap comes from unmarried women • Implicit messaging on gender • Mixed results; women can be helped and hurt electorally by priming voters to consider gender